A little something different! We examine a couple articles that are straight-up disrespectful toward the Portland Trail Blazers, and get a laugh at a couple of other weird things they have to say.
Looking back: They really were sleeping on Portland
Historical update (November 2026): When I made this video in August 2018, Portland had just come off a 49-win season and a frustrating first-round sweep by the Pelicans. The national predictions weren’t particularly impressed. The Blazers had lost Ed Davis, and apparently that was one more reason to expect a big step backward—even with Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkić still on the roster.
ESPN’s preseason forecast projected Portland to finish 43–39 and outside the Western Conference playoffs, despite the Blazers having won 49 games and finished third in the West the previous season. The loss of Ed Davis was one of the reasons cited for skepticism. That’s the ESPN prediction I was taking issue with in the original video. A 2019 retrospective also documents ESPN’s 43–39 forecast. The Blazers didn’t just outperform it—they made it look pretty silly.
I also questioned why OKC and Denver were getting so much more respect. The Thunder had moved on from Carmelo Anthony and added Dennis Schröder, while the Nuggets, whose defense had been a problem, brought in Isaiah Thomas. At the time, I wasn’t convinced those changes justified ranking both teams ahead of Portland. To be fair to Denver, that particular prediction wasn’t crazy: the Nuggets improved dramatically, won 54 games, and finished second in the West.
But Portland had the last laugh where it mattered. The Blazers finished 53–29, third in the West—10 wins above ESPN’s 43-win prediction. They beat the sixth-seeded Thunder (49–33) in five playoff games, then knocked off second-seeded Denver in seven to reach the Western Conference Finals. Golden State swept Portland there, but the season was still a terrific answer to all those predictions about the Blazers missing the playoffs.
So yes, I was annoyed in this video. And looking back, I think I had a pretty good reason to be. ESPN didn’t see that run coming—and neither did a lot of people outside Portland.
For another look at what I was thinking that summer, see my 2018–19 Blazers schedule breakdown.